Envoy: Iran ready to send relief aid to Tajikistan’s flood-hit zone

Dushanbe, July 18, IRNA – Iranian Ambassador to Tajikistan Hojjatollah Faqani voiced Tehran’s readiness to send relief aid to the Central Asian country’s flood-stricken regions. “The Islamic Republic of Iran’s relief organizations have voiced their readiness for sending help to flood-hit people of Badakhshan,” Faqani said on Saturday. He noted that the representative office of the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS), Imam Khomeini Relief Committee and the Iranian technical and engineering companies in Tajikistan have mobilized to help the flood-stricken people of Tajikistan. The unprecedented hot weather and melting down of glaciers as well as rise in the volume of rivers in Badakhshan region of Tajikistan resulted in flooding in the region as a result of which roads and bridges as well as many homes, farms and gardens were destroyed. According to local officials, it is not known when the flooding will come to a halt and many regions are still exposed to the danger of flooding. The flooding has cut the main and international access road to Kharouq city, capital of Badakhshan, and there is blackout due to the destruction of electricity transmission and hydroelectric power plant. The people have also difficulty to get access to drinking water. Badakhshan is one of four provinces of Tajikistan that accounts for 40 percent of Tajikistan’s area and it is a tourism hub due to its sky-rise mountains and its natural glaciers.